Who knew...?

Who knew that a simple idea to spend more quality time with my kids and create something that is good for us would turn into one of the most enlightening and stressful times of my life. I just wanted to make home made soaps and lotions. So, like every task I start I had to do some research. We are, after all, going to be using this on our bodies so I better know what the hell I'm doing. I thought this was going to be easy...hahahahaha. I started out by looking up the ingredients in soap making on the Internet. Ewwww. OK, rule #1 ... If I cannot safely eat it then I don't want it on my skin. Your skin is the largest and most porous organ on your body. Everything that touches your skin goes directly into your body, another big Ewwwww. Where have your hands been lately?

Which brings me to the subject of lye. Not the most friendly substance out there. However, you cannot make soap without using lye. Honestly, I'm not "lyeing". Ok, so my humor needs some work. Anyway, I have searched everywhere for an alternative method and unless I want to make a goopey mess that has no effective cleaning power I have no choice but to use lye. I have learned that the end result (soap) does not actually contain any lye. This is due to a process called Saponification. I won't go into the details of it here because it's enough to give you a headache (I know this from experience). So, yes, my soap must be made with lye. Other than that I refuse to use anything that could be considered toxic or harmful in my home made products. If I don't like my kids eating sugar why on earth would I want them to absorb it into their skin? Same with dyes, more Ewwwww. There are just too many natural ways to put color and scent into things using foods and herbs that are actually adding something healthy and beneficial to your skin.

Other than a huge amount of research and hours upon hours of reading and note taking I think this should be fun. My daughters are really excited about this and we have decided that it's just too good to keep to ourselves. We are going to try to make a small business venture out of our experience. If we can get just one person to stop using chemical laden products on their skin then it's worth all the hard work and headaches. We are going to name the products after our beloved goat "Dixie Doo" since she was the inspiration for this whole adventure. My daughters are in charge of creating a label for our products. Not all of our products will contain goats milk because some people just won't go there. However, most of our soaps will contain milk from Dixie and her future babies (and hopefully their babies, and so on...).

Hopefully this adventure will be our answer to living a normal life again. Ever since my husband became ill we have barely been able to survive. Social Security just doesn't pay enough to support a family. Even though his health is a big reason for us going natural that's a whole different story, so lets move on.

Our plan is to start selling our products at the local flea markets, we have them all year around here. In the summer they are held outside and when the weather gets cold they relocate to an indoor facility. Their are also numerous craft fairs all over this area. We live in a very small town and almost all the towns in our area are historic vacation destinations. The small town where I grew up is only nine miles from us and almost all the downtown businesses sell antiques or handmade goods. We are hoping that one of them would be willing to carry our products. I'm also going to start researching internet sales (ugh, more research).

Keeping things natural and healthy is the main goal here. That will mean growing my own herbs and flowers so I know what goes into my soaps and lotions. But until I can get things growing I will have to rely on the internet and local farmers for some of my ingredients. Luckily most of what I need is grown or produced locally. Beeswax, honey, organic herbs, etc... The other ingredients I plan on buying from well known companies like Tropical Traditions, just to name one. Maybe I'm crazy to think this can work, but I have to give it a try. If nothing else, it's nice to see that twinkle in my daughters eyes when we talk about it, and the time we spend together planning and dreaming and creating is worth every minute of research and work I put into this plan.

I would be more than happy to get peoples feedback on this idea. So, please leave a comment and let me know what you think.